HACKING

02.22.12

Cherie Blair Sues News Corp.

Alberto Pellaschiar / AP Photos

The wife of former British prime minister Tony Blair filed a lawsuit against Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp. as the company braces for the first civil trial to result from allegations of phone hacking. “If it is true that a former prime minister’s family have been targeted by Rupert Murdoch’s hackers, then it is clearly a significant moment in the scandal,” said a member of the parliamentary committee investigating the hacking cases. The phone-hacking scandal has already touched Blair’s inner circle, though not his family: News International, the British arm of News Corp., settled claims with Blair’s former press chief as well as the former deputy prime minister.